











OS 



car cr<c< <: 






^i^-c::^ ' 



\ < c <^ <- ^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, # 






r^ < 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. f[ 












m^ 



re cc 



cr <r< cc 



^^'^ 



c <:<:^ ^ 
< <r<: < 

C << < 

: cc c 



<: <i c< 



C cc<: 



c( cae^ 



«^ 


.-- <L. C4K 


^l 


<L<M 


<L. 


<-< CSK 


«r 


t <ie 










C C'^' 




^c <:- 


: c <L 


c<v . . <^ <r 




t 


r<£< < *:' 


c 


^ <: 


<;<• .<<: 


< 


<- •C' 


xLt c <r 


<. 


c <: 


C<t c <r <- 




c < 


^'C C <- 


< 


■ . c ^ 


C' < <r 


<: 


t «1" 


c <r < 




<: -r: - 


c<r < 


([f 


<rC 


- vC . <.. 


C 


cx: 











re 

( 






/ ^^ 






r 






<• ^ <^,"_ „<^ 


^C-j 


e <4C 




( 


^g^ 






^sd.. 


<; <<^c 


iC^ ' 


1 


1^ " 




c ^^ '< 


<€id_. ■ 


c <S<: 


<^ . 




^^ • 




^> ~ '■ 


_ _43icr 


'^. Ci*^ 


Oc- 


: 4 


r"^ 




^5 ^^ '" 


<<^ 


'■'/ 


■<!"■ 




.<;-• ' 




c < - ^ ' ■ 


\. cc: 


ci • 


,rr 


' « 






C.X ^ 


r <^^ 


^<" 



AN ORATION 



-ON- 



THIE O-OIDS, 



DELIVERED BY 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, 



1/ 

1 FAIRBURY, ILL., 



AT -^ ' ~ --. 



On the Evening of January 29th, 1872. 



There can be but little Liberty on Earth while men worship a Tyrant in Heaven. '" '''^W,^ 



PEORIA, ILL.: 
TRANSCRIPT BOOK AND JOB PRINT. 

1872. 



;^U 



7^ 



QA^^t' 



% 



/X-Z'/6^hy 



The Gods 



An Honest God is the Noblest Woek of Man. 

Nearly every people have created a god, and the 
god has always resembled his creators. He hated 
and loved what they hated and loved, and he was 
invariably found on the side of those in power. 
Each god was intensely patriotic, and detested all 
nations but his own. All these gods demanded 
praise, flattery, and worship. Most of them were 
pleased with sacrifice, and the smell of innocent 
blood has ever been considered a divine perfume. 
All these gods have insisted upon having a vast 
number of priests, and the priests have always 
insisted upon being supported by the people, and 
the principal business of these priests has been to 
boast about their god, and to insist that he could 
easily vanquish all the other gods put together. 

These gods have been manufactured after num- 
berless models, and according to the most grotesque 



fashions. Some have a thousand arms, some 
a hundred heads, some are adorned with necklaces 
of living snakes, some are armed with clubs, some 
with sword and shield, some with bucklers and some 
have wings as a cherub ; some were invisible, some 
would show themselves entire and some would only- 
show their backs; some were jealous, some were 
foolish, some turned themselves into men, some 
into swans, some into bulls, some into doves, and 
some into Holy Ghosts, and made love to the 
beautiful daughters of men. Some were married 
— all ought to have been — and some were con- 
sidered as old bachelors from all eternity. Some 
had children, and the children were turned into 
gods and worshipped as their fathers had been. 
Most of these gods were revengeful, savage, lustful 
and ignorant. As they generally depended upon 
their priests for information, their ignorance can 
hardly excite our astonishment. 

These gods did not even know the shape 
of the worlds they had created, but supposed them 
perfectly flat. Some thought the day could be 
lengthened by stopping the sun, that the blow- 
ing of horns could throw down the walls of a city, 
and all knew so little of the real nature of the 
people they had created, that they commanded the 
people to love them. Some were so ignorant as to 
suppose that man could believe just as he might 
desire, or as they might command, and that to be 



governed by observation, reason, and experience 
is a most foul and damning sin. None of these 
gods could give a true account of the creation of 
this little earth. All were wofully deficient in 
geology and astronomy. As a rule, they were 
most miserable legislators, and as executives, they 
were far inferior to the average of American pres- 
idents. 

These deities have demanded the most abject 
and degrading obedience. In order to please them, 
man must lay his very face in the dust. Of course, 
they have always been partial to the people who 
created them, and have generally shown their par- 
tiality by assisting those people to rob and 
destroy others, and to ravish their wives and 
daughters. 

Nothing is so pleasing to these gods as the 
butchery of unbelievers. Nothing so enrages them, 
even now, as to have some one deny their existence. 

Few nations have been so poor as to have but 
one god. Gods were made so easily, and the raw 
material cost so little, that generally, the god- 
market was fairly glutted, and heaven crammed 
with these phantoms. These gods not only 
attended to the skies, but were supposed to inter- 
fere in all the affairs of men. They presided over 
everybody and everything. They attended to 
every department. All was supposed to be under 
their immediate control. Nothing was too small 



— nothing too large ; the falling of sparrows, the 
flatulence of the people, and the motions of the 
planets were alike attended to by these industrious 
and observing deities. From their starry thrones 
they frequently came to the earth for the purpose 
of imparting information to man. It is related of 
one, that he came amid thunderings and lightnings, 
in order to tell the people that they should not 
cook a kid in its mother's milk. Some left their 
shining abodes to tell women that they should, or 
should not, have children — to inform a priest how 
to cut and wear his apron, and to give directions 
as to the proper manner of cleaning the intestines 
of a bird. 

When the people failed to worship one of these 
gods, or failed to feed and clothe his priests, (which 
was much the same thing) he generally visited 
them with pestilence and famine. Sometimes he 
allowed some other nation to drag them into 
slavery — to sell their wives and children ; but 
generally he glutted his vengeance by murdering 
their first-born. The priests always did their whole 
duty, not only in predicting these calamities, but 
in proving, when they did happen, that they were 
brought upon the people because they had not 
given quite enough to them. 

These gods differed just as the nations differed : 
the greatest and most powerful had the most 
powerful god, while the weaker ones were 



obliged to content themselves with the very off- 
scourings of the heavens. Each of these gods 
promised happiness here and hereafter to all his 
slaves, and threatened to eternally punish all who 
either disbelieved in his existence, or suspected 
that some other god might be his superior; 
but to deny the existence of all gods was, and 
is, the crime of crimes. Redden your hands with 
human blood ; blast by slander the fair fame of the 
innocent ; strangle the smiling child upon its 
mother's knees ; deceive, ruin and desert the beau- 
tiful girl who loves and trusts you — and your case 
is not hopeless. For all this, and for all these you 
may be forgiven. For all this, and for all these, 
that bankrupt court established by the gospel will 
give you a discharge ; but deny the existence of 
these divine ghosts, of these gods, and the sweet 
and tearful face of Mercy becomes livid with eter- 
nal hate. Heaven's golden gates are shut, and you, 
with an infinite curse ringing in your ears, with 
the brand of infamy upon your brow, commence 
your endless wanderings in the lurid gloom of hell 
— an immortal vagrant — an eternal outcast — a 
deathless convict. 

One of these gods, and one who demands our 
love, our admiration and our worship, and one who 
is worshipped, if mere heartless ceremony is wor- 
ship, gave to his chosen people, for their guidance, 
the following laws of war : " When thou comest 



8 

nigli unto a city to fight against it, then 'proclaim 
peace unto it. And it shall be if it make thee 
answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall 
be that all the people that is found therein shall 
be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. 
And if it will make no peace with thee, but will 
make war against thee, then thou shalt beseige it. 
And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it 
into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male 
thereof with the edge of the sword. But the 
women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all 
that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof shalt 
thou take unto thyself, and thou shalt eat the spoil 
of thine enemies which the Lord thy God hath 
given thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities 
which are very far off from thee, which are not of 
the cities of these nations. But of the cities of 
these people which the Lord thy God doth give 
thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing 
thathreathethr 

Is it possible for man to conceive of anything 
more perfectly infamous? Can you believe that 
such directions were given by any being except an 
infinite fiend? Remember that the army receiving 
these instructions was one of invasion. Peace was 
offered upon condition that the people submitting 
should be the slaves of the invader ; but if any 
should have the courage to defend their homes, to 
fight for the love of wife and child, then the sword 



was to spare none — not even the prattling, dim- 
pled babe 

And we are called upon to worship such a god ; 
to get upon our knees and tell him that he is 
good, that he is merciful, that he is just, that he is 
love. We are asked to stifle every noble senti- 
ment of the soul, and to trample under foot 
all the sweet charities of the heart. Be- 
cause we refuse to stultify ourselves — refuse 
to become liars — we are denounced, hated, tra- 
duced and ostracised here ; and this same god 
threatens to torment us in eternal fire the moment 
death allows him to fiercely clutch our naked, 
helpless souls. Let the people hate — let the god 
threaten ; we will educate them, and we will 
despise and defy him. 

The book, called the bible, is filled with passages 
equally horrible, unjust and atrocious. This is 
the book to be read in schools in order to make 
our children loving, kind and gentle ! This is the 
book to be recognized in our Constitution as the 
source of all authority and justice ! 

Strange ! that no one has ever been persecuted 
by the church for believing God bad, while hun- 
dreds of millions have been destroyed for thinking 
him good. The orthodox church never will for- 
give the Universalist for saying, " God is love." It 
has always been considered as one of the very 



10 

highest evidences of true and undefiled religion to 
insist that all men, women and children deserve 
eternal damnation. It has always been heresy to 
say, " God will at last save all." 

We are asked to justify these frightful passages 
— these infamous laws of war — because the bible 
is the word of God. As a matter of fact there 
never was and there never can be, an argument, 
even tending to prove the inspiration of any book 
whatever. In the absence of positive evidence, 
analogy and experience, argument is simply impos- 
sible, and at the very best, can amount only to a 
useless agitation of the air. The instant we admit 
that a book is too sacred to be doubted, or even 
reasoned about, we are mental serfs. It is infinitely 
absurd to suppose that a god would address a 
communication to intelligent beings, and yet make 
it a crime, to be punished in eternal flames, for 
them to use their intelligence for the purpose of 
understanding his communication. If we have the 
right to use our reason, we certainly have the right 
to act in accordance with it, and no god can have 
the right to punish us for such action. 

The doctrine that future happiness depends 
upon belief is monstrous. It is the infamy 
of infamies. The idea that faith in Christ is 
to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while 
a dependence upon reason, observation and 
experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd 



11 

for refutation, and can be believed only by that 
unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called 
"faith." What man, who ever thinks, can believe 
that blood can appease God ? And yet, our entire 
system of religion is based upon that belief The 
Jews pacified Jehovah with the blood of animals, 
and according to the Christian system, the blood of 
Jesus softened the heart of God a little, and ren- 
dered possible the salvation of a fortunate few. It 
is hard to conceive how the human mind can give 
its assent to such terrible ideas, or how any sane 
man can read the bible, and still believe in the 
doctrine of inspiration. 

Whether the bible is true or false, is of no con- 
sequence in comparison with the mental freedom 
of the race. 

Salvation through slavery is worthless. Salva- 
tion from slavery is inestimable. 

As long as man believes the bible to be infallible, 
that book is his master. The civilization of this 
century is not the child of faith, but of unbelief — 
the result of free thought. 

All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to con- 
vince any reasonable person that the bible is 
simply and purely of human invention — of bar- 
barian invention — is to read it. Read it as you 
would any other book ; think of it as you would of 
any other ; get the bandage of reverence from your 



12 

eyes; drive from your heart the phantom of fear; 
push from the throne of your brain the cowled 
form of superstition — then read the holy bible, 
and you will be amazed that you ever, for one 
moment, supposed a being of infinite^ wisdom, 
goodness and purity, to be the author of such 
ignorance and of such atrocity. 

Our ancestors not only had their god-factories, 
but they made devils as well. These devils were 
generally disgraced and fallen gods. Some had 
headed unsuccessful revolts ; some had been caught 
sweetly reclining in the shadowy folds of some 
fleecy cloud, kissing the wife of the god of gods. 
These devils generally sympathized with man. 
There is in regard to them a most wonderful fact: 
in nearly all the theologies, mythologies and relig- 
ions, the devils have been much more humane and 
merciful than the gods. 'No devil ever gave one 
of his generals an order to kill children, and to rip 
open the bodies of pregnant women. Such bar- 
barities were always ordered by the good gods. 
The pestilences were sent by the most merciful 
gods. The frightful famine, during which the 
dying child with pallid lips sucked the withered 
bosom of a dead mother, was sent by the loving 
gods. No devil was ever charged with such 
fiendish brutality. 

One of these gods, according to the account, 
drowned an entire world, with the exception of 



13 

eight persons. The old, the young, the beautiful 
and the helpless were remorselessly devoured by 
the shoreless sea. This, the most fearful tragedy 
that the imagination of ignorant priests ever con- 
ceived, was the act, not of a devil, but of a god, 
so-called, whom men ignorantly worship unto this 
day. What a stain such an act would leave upon 
the character of a devil ! One of the prophets of 
one of these gods, having in his power a captured 
king, hewed him in pieces in the sight of all the 
people. Was ever any imp of any devil guilty of 
such savagery ? 

One of these gods is reported to have given the 
following directions concerning human slavery : 
" If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he 
serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for 
nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out 
by himself, if he were married then his wife shall 
go out with him. If his master have given him a 
wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, 
the wife and her children shall be her master's, 
and he shall go out by himself. And if the ser- 
vant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife 
and my children ; I will not go out free. Then his 
master shall bring him unto the judges ; he shall 
also bring him unto the door, or unto the door- 
post ; and his master shall bore his ear through 
with an awl ; and he shall serve him forever." 

According to this, a man was given liberty upon 



14 

condition that he would desert forever his wife and 
children. Did any devil ever force upon a hus- 
band, upon a father, so cruel and so heartless an 
alternative ? Who can worship such a god ? 
Who can bend the knee to such a monster? Who 
can pray to such a fiend ? 

All these gods threatened to torment forever 
the souls of their enemies. Did any devil ever 
make so infamous a threat ? The basest thing 
recorded of the devil, is what he did concerning 
Job and his family, and that was done by the 
express' permission of one of these gods, and to 
decide a little difference of opinion between their 
" serene highnesses " as to the character of " my 
servant Job." 

The first account we have of tjie devil, is found 
in that purely scientific book called Grenesis, and 
is as follows : " 'Now the serpent was more subtile 
than any beast of the field which the Lord God 
had made, and he said unto the woman. Yea, hath 
God said. Ye shall not eat of the fruit of the trees 
of the garden ? And the woman said unto the 
serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of 
the garden ; but of the fruit of the tree which is in 
the midst of the garden God hath said, Ye shall 
not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 
And the serpent said unto the woman. Ye shall 
not surely die. For God doth know that in the 
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened 



15 

and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 
And when the woman saw that the tree was good 
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and 
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of 
the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto 
her husband with her, and he did eat. ^ * 

* * And the Lord Grod said. Behold, the 
man is become as one of us, to know good and 
evil ; and now lest he put forth his hand, and take 
also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever. 
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the 
garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he 
was taken. So he drove out the man, and he 
placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim 
and a flaming sword, which turned every way to 
keep the way of the tree of life." 

According to this account, the promise of the 
devil was fulfilled to the very letter. Adam and 
Eve did not die, and they did become as gods, 
knowing good and evil. 

The account shows, however, that the gods 
dreaded education and knowledge then just as 
they do now. The church still faithfully guards 
the dangerous tree of knowledge, and has exerted 
in all ages her utmost power to keep mankind 
from eating the fruit thereof The priests have 
never ceased repeating the old falsehood and the 
old threat: "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall 
ye touch it, lest ye die." From every pulpit comes 



16 

the same cry, born of the same fear : " Lest they 
eat and become as gods, knowing good and evil." 
For this reason, religion hates science, faith detests 
reason, theology is the sworn enemy of philosophy, 
and the church with its flaming sword still guards 
the hated tree, and like its supposed founder, curses 
to the lowest depths the brave thinkers who eat 
and become as gods. 

If the account given in Genesis is really true, 
ought we not after all to thank this serpent ? He 
was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of 
learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to 
whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, 
the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of 
inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and 
of civilization. 

Give me the storm and tempest of thought and 
action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance 
and faith ! Banish me from Eden when you will ; 
but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of 
knowledge ! 

Some nations have borrowed their gods ; of this 
number, we are compelled to say, is our own. 
The Jews having ceased to exist as a nation, and 
having no further use for a god, our ancestors 
appropriated him, and adopted their devil at the 
same time. This borrowed god is still an object 
of some adoration, aud this adopted devil still 
excites the apprehensions of our people. He is still 



17 

supposed to be setting Ms traps and snares for the 
purpose of catching our unwary souls, and is still, 
with reasonable success, waging the old war 
against our god. 

To me, it seems easy to account for these ideas 
concerning gods and devils. They are a perfectly 
natural production. Man has created them all, 
and under the same circumstances would create 
them again. Man has not only created all these 
gods, but he has created them out of the materials 
by which he has been surrounded. Generally he 
has modeled them after himself, and has given them 
hands, heads, feet, eyes, ears, and organs of 
speech. Each nation made its gods and devils 
speak its language not only, but put in their 
mouths the same mistakes in history, geography, 
astronomy, and in all matters of fact, generally 
made by the people. 'No god was ever in advance 
of the nation that created him. The negroes 
represented their deities with black skins and curly 
hair. The Mongolian gave to his a yellow com- 
plexion and dark almond-shaped eyes. The Jews 
were not allowed to paint theirs, or we should have 
seen Jehovah with a full beard, an oval face, and 
an aquiline nose. Jove was a perfect Grreek, and 
Jupiter looked as though a member of the Roman 
senate. The gods of Egypt had the patient face 
and placid look of the loving people who made 
them. The gods of northern countries were repre- 
3 



18 

sented warmly clad in robes of fur ; those of the 
tropics were naked. The gods of India were often 
mounted upon elephants ; those of some islanders 
were great swimmers, and the deities of the Arctic 
zone were passionately fond of whale's blubber. 
Nearly all people have carved or painted repre- 
sentations of their gods, and these representations 
were, by the lower classes, generally treated as the 
real gods, and to these images and idols they 
addressed prayers and offered sacrifice. 

" In some countries, even at this day, if the 
people after long praying do not obtain their 
desires, they turn their images off as impotent 
gods, or upbraid them in a most reproachful man- 
ner, loading them with blows and curses. '' How 
now, dog of a spirit," they say, '^ we give you 
lodging in a magnificent temple, we gild you with 
gold, feed you with the choicest food, and offer 
incense to you, yet after all this care you are so 
uno-rateful as to refuse us what we ask." Here- 
upon they will pull the god down and drag him 
through the filth of the street. If in the mean- 
time it happens that they obtain their request, 
then with a great deal of ceremony, they wash him 
clean, carry him back and place him in his temple 
again, where they fall down and make excuses for 
what they have done. "Of a truth," say they, 
" we were a little too hasty, and you were a little 
too long in your grant. Why should you bring 



19 

this beating on yourself. But what is done cannot 
be undone. Let us not think of it any more. If 
you will forget what is past we will gild you over 
again brighter than before." 

Man has never been at a loss for gods. He has 
worshipped almost everything, including the vilest 
and most disgusting beasts. He has worshipped 
fire, earth, air, water, light, stars, and for hundreds 
of ages prostrated himself before enormous snakes. 
Savage tribes often make gods of articles they get 
from civilized people. The Todas worship a cow- 
bell. The Kotas worship two silver plates, which 
they regard as husband and wife, and another 
tribe manufactured a god out of a king of hearts. 

Man having always been the physical superior 
of woman, accounts for the fact that most of the 
high gods have been males. Had woman been 
the physical superior, the powers supposed to be 
the rulers of Nature would have been women, and 
instead of being represented in the apparel of 
man, they would have luxuriated in trains, low- 
necked dresses, laces and back-hair. 

Nothing can be plainer than that each nation 
gives to its god its peculiar characteristics, and 
that every individual gives to his god his personal 
peculiarities. 

Man has no ideas, and can have none, except 
those suggested by his surroundings. He cannot 
conceive of anything utterly unlike what he has 



20 

seen or felt. He can exaggerate, diminisli, com- 
bine, separate, deform, beautify, improve, multiply 
and compare what he sees, what he feels, what he 
hears, and all of which he takes cognizance 
through the medium of the senses ; but he cannot 
create. Having seen exhibitions of power, he can 
say, omnipotent. Having lived, he can say, immor- 
tality. Knowing something of time, he can say, 
eternit}^ Conceiving something of intelligence, 
he can say, God. Having seen exhibitions of 
malice, he can say, devil. A few gleams of happi- 
ness having fallen athwart the gloom of his life, he 
can say, heaven. Pain, in its numberless forms, 
having been experienced, he can say, hell. Yet 
all these ideas have a foundation in fact, and only 
a foundation. The superstructure has been reared 
by exaggerating, diminishing, combining, sepa- 
rating, deforming, beautifying, improving or mul- 
tiplying realities, so that the edifice, or fabric, is 
but the incongruous grouping of what man has 
perceived through the medium of the senses. It 
is as though we should give to a lion the wings 
of an eagle, the hoofs of a bison, the tail of a horse, 
the pouch of a kangaroo, and the trunk of an ele- 
phant. We have in imagination created an 
impossible monster. And yet the various parts 
of this monster really exist. So it is with all the 
gods that man has made. 
Beyond nature man can not go, even in thought 



21 

— above nature he can not rise — below nature 
lie cannot fall. 

Man, in his ignorance, supposed that all phe- 
nomena were produced by some intelligent pow- 
ers, and with direct reference to him. To 
preserve friendly relations with these powers was, 
and still is, the object of all religions. Man 
knelt through fear and to implore assistance, or 
through gratitude for some favor which he sup- 
posed had been rendered. He endeavored by sup- 
plication to appease some being who, for some 
reason, had, as he believed, become enraged. The 
lightning and thunder terrified him. In the pres- 
ence of the volcano he sank upon his knees. The 
great forests filled with wild and ferocious beasts ; 
the monstrous serpents crawling in mysterious 
depths ; the boundless sea ; the flaming comets ; 
the sinister eclipses ; the awful calmness of the 
stars, and more than all, the perpetual presence 
of death, convinced him that he was the sport 
and prey of unseen and malignant powers. The 
strange and frightful diseases to which he was 
subject; the freezings and burnings of fever; 
the contortions of epilepsy ; the sudden palsies ; 
the darkness of night, and the wild, terrible 
and fantastic dreams that filled his brain, sat- 
isfied him that he was haunted and pursued 
by countless spirits of evil. For some reason 
he supposed that these spirits differed in power — 



22 

that they were not all alike malevolent — that the 
higher controlled the lower, and that his very 
existence depended upon gaining the assistance of 
the more powerful. For this purpose he resorted 
to prayer, to flattery, to worship and to sacrifice. 
These ideas appear to have been almost universal 
in savage man. 

For ages, all nations supposed that the sick and 
insane were possessed by evil spirits. For thou- 
sands of years the practice of medicine consisted in 
frightening these spirits away. Usually the priests 
would make the loudest and most discordant noises 
possible. They would blow horns, beat upon rude 
drums, clash cymbals, and in the meantime utter 
the most unearthly yells. If the noise-remedy 
failed, they would implore the aid of some more 
powerful spirit. 

To pacify these spirits was considered of infinite 
importance. The poor barbarian, knowing that 
men could be softened by gifts, gave to these 
spirits that which to him seemed of the most value. 
"With bursting heart he would offer the blood of 
his dearest child. It was impossible for him to 
conceive of a god utterly unlike himself, and he 
naturally supposed that these powers of the air 
would be affected a little at the sight of so great 
and so deep a sorrow. It was with the barbarians 
then as with the civilized now : one class lived 
upon and made merchandise of the fears of another. 



23 

Certain persons took it upon themselv^esto appease 
the gods, and to instruct the people in their duties 
to these unseen powers. This was the origin of 
the priesthood. The priest pretended to stand 
between the wrath of the gods and the helplessness 
of man. He was man's attorney at the court of 
heaven. He carried to the invisible world a flag 
of truce, a protest and a request. He came back 
with a command, with authority and with power. 
Man fell upon his knees before his own servant, 
and the priest, taking advantage of the awe 
inspired by his supposed influence with the gods, 
made of his fellow-man a cringing hypocrite and 
slave. Even Christ, the supposed son of God, 
taught that persons were possessed of evil spirits, 
and frequently, according to the account, gave 
proof of his divine origin and mission by frighten- 
ing droves of devils out of his unfortunate country- 
men. Casting out devils was his principal 
employment, and the devils thus banished generally 
took occasion to acknowledge him as the true 
Messiah ; which was not only very kind of them, 
but quite fortunate for him. The religious people 
have always regarded the testimony of these devils 
as perfectly conclusive, and the writers of the 'New 
Testament quote the words of these imps of dark- 
ness with great satisfaction. 

The fact that Christ could withstand the tempt- 
ations of the devil, was considered as conclusive 



24 



evidence ttat lie was assisted by some god, or at 
least by some being superior to man. St. Matthew- 
gives an account of an attempt made by the devil 
to tempt the supposed son of God ; and it has 
always excited the wonder of Christians that the 
temptation was so nobly and heroically withstood. 
The account to which I refer is as follows : 

" Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the 
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And 
when the tempter came to him, he said, ^ If 
thou be the son of God command that these stones 
be made bread.' But he answered and said, ^ It 
is written : man shall not live by bread alone, but 
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth 
of God.' Then the devil taketh him up into the 
holy city and setteth him upon a pinnacle of the 
temple, and saith unto him, ' If thou be the son 
of God, cast thyself down ; for it is written, He 
shall give his angels charge concerning thee, lest 
at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a 
stone.' Jesus said unto him, ' It is written again, 
thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.' Again 
the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high 
mountain and sheweth him all the kingdoms of 
the world and the glory of them, and saith unto 
him, ' All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall 
down and worship me.' " 

The Christians now claim that Jesus was God. 
If he was God, of course the devil knew that fact. 



25 

and yet, according to this account, tlie devil took 
the omnipotent God and placed him upon a pin- 
nacle of the temple, and endeavored to induce him 
to dash himself against the earth. Failing in that, 
he took the creator, owner and governor of the 
universe up into an exceeding high mountain, and 
offered him this world — this grain of sand, if he, 
the God of all the worlds, would fall down and 
worship him, a poor devil, without even a tax title 
to one foot of dirt ! Is it possible the devil was 
such an idiot? Should any great credit be given to 
this deity for not being caught with such chaff? 
Think of it ! The devil — the prince of sharpers 
— the king of cunning — the master of finesse, 
trying to bribe God with a grain of sand that be- 
longed to God ! 

Is there in all the religious literature of the 
world anything more grossly absurd than this ? 

These devils, according to the bible, were of 
various kinds, — some could speak and hear, oth- 
ers were deaf and dumb. All could not be cast 
out in the same way. The deaf and dumb spirits 
were quite difficult to deal with. St. Mark tells 
of a gentleman who brought his son to Christ. 
The boy, it seems, was possessed of a dumb spirit, 
over which the disciples had no control. "Jesus 
said' unto the spirit, ' Thou dumb and deaf spirit, 
I charge thee come oat of him, and enter no more 
into him.' " Whereupon, the deaf spirit (having 



26 

heard what was said) cried out (being dumb) and 
immediately vacated the premises. The ease with 
which Christ controlled this deaf and dumb spirit, 
excited the wonder of his disciples, and they asked 
him privately why they could not cast that spirit 
out. To whom he replied: "This kind can come 
forth by nothing but prayer and fasting." Is 
there a Christian in the whole woi'ld who would 
believe such a story if found in any other book ? 
The trouble is, these pious people shut up their 
reason, and then open their bible. 

In the olden times, the existence of devils was 
universally admitted. The people had no doubt 
upon that subject, and from such belief it followed 
as a matter of course, that a person, in order to 
vanquish these devils, had either to be a god, or 
assisted by one. All founders of religions have 
established their claims to divine origin by con- 
trolling evil spirits and suspending the laws of 
nature. Casting out devils was a certificate of 
divinity. A prophet, unable to cope with the 
powers of darkness, was regarded with contempt. 
The utterance of the highest and noblest senti- 
ments ; the most blameless and holy life, com- 
manded but little respect, unless accompanied by 
power to work miracles and command spirits. 

This belief in good and evil powers had its 
origin in the fact that man was surrounded, by 
what he was pleased to call, good and evil phe- 



27 

nomena. Phenomena affecting man pleasantly 
were ascribed to good spirits, while those affecting 
him unpleasantly or injuriously, were ascribed to 
evil spirits. It being admitted that all phenom- 
ena were produced by spirits, the spirits were 
divided according to the phenomena, and the phe- 
nomena were good or bad as they affected man. 
Good spirits were supposed to be the authors of 
good phenomena, and evil spirits of the evil : so 
that the idea of a devil has been as universal as 
the idea of a god. 

Many writers maintain that an idea to become 
universal must be true; that all universal ideas 
are innate ; and that innate ideas can not be false. 
If the fact, that an idea has been universal, proves 
that it is innate, and if the fact, that an idea is 
innate, proves that it is correct, then, the believers 
in innate ideas must admit that the evidence of a 
god superior to nature, and of a devil superior to 
nature, is exactly the same, and that the existence 
of such a devil must be as self evident as the exist- 
ence of such a god. The truth is, a god was in- 
ferred from good, and a devil from bad, phenomena. 
And it is just as natural and logical to suppose 
that a devil would cause happiness, as to suppose 
that a god would produce misery. Consequently, 
if an intelligence, infinite and supreme, is the im- 
mediate author of all phenomena, it is difficult to 
determine whether such intelligence is the friend 



28 

or enemy of man. If phenomena were all good, 
we might say they were all produced by a 
perfectly beneficent being. If they were all bad, 
we might say they were produced by a perfectly 
malevolent power; but as phenomena are, as they 
affect man, both good and bad, they must be pro- 
duced by different and antagonistic spirits; by 
one who is sometimes actuated by kindness, and 
sometimes by malice ; or all must be produced 
of necessity, and without reference to their conse- 
quences upon man. 

The foolish doctrine, that all phenomena can be 
traced to the interference of good and evil spirits, 
has been, and still is almost universal. That most 
people still believe in some spirit that can change 
the natural order of events, is proven by the fact, 
that nearly all resort to prayer. Thousands, at 
this very moment, are probably imploring some 
supposed power to interfere in their behalf. 
Some want health restored; some ask that the 
loved and absent be watched over and protected; 
some pray for riches ; some for rain ; some want 
diseases stayed ; some vainly ask for food ; some 
ask for revivals ; a few ask for more wisdom, and 
now and then one tells the Lord to do as he may 
think best. Thousands ask to be protected from 
the devil ; some, like David, pray for revenge, and 
some implore, even God, not to lead them into 
temptation. All these prayers rest upon, and are 



29 

produced by tlie idea, that some power not only 
can, but probably will change the order of the 
universe. This belief has been among the great 
majority of tribes and nations. All sacred books 
are filled with the accounts of such interferences, 
and our own bible is no exception to this rule. 

If we believe in a power superior to nature, it is 
perfectly natural to suppose that such power can 
and will interfere in the affairs of this world. If 
there is no interference, of what practical use can 
such power be ? The scriptures give us the most 
wonderful accounts of divine interference : Ani- 
mals talk like men ; springs gurgle from dry 
bones ; the sun and moon stop in the heavens in 
order that General Joshua may have more time to 
murder ; the shadow on a dial goes back ten 
degrees to convince a ipA^j king of a barbarous 
people that he is not going to die of a boil ; fire 
refuses to burn ; water positively declines to seek 
its level, but stands up like a wall ; grains of sand 
become lice ; common walking sticks, to gratify 
a mere freak, twist themselves into serpents, and 
then swallow each other by way of exercise ; mur- 
muring streams, laughing at the attraction of gravi- 
tation, run up hill for years, following wandering 
tribes from a pure love of frolic ; prophecy be- 
comes altogether easier than history; the sons 
of God become enamoured of the world's girls ; 
women are changed into salt for the purpose of 



30 

keeping a great event fresh in the minds of men ; 
an excellent article of brimstone is imported from 
heaven free of duty ; clothes refuse to wear out 
for forty years ; birds keep restaurants and feed 
wandering prophets free of expense; bears tear 
children in pieces for laughing at old men without 
wigs; muscular development depends upon the 
length of one's hair ; dead people come to life, 
simply to get a joke on their enemies and heirs ; 
witches and wizards converse freely with the souls 
of the departed, and God himself becomes a stone- 
cutter and engraver, after having been a tailor and 
dress-maker. 

The veil between heaven and earth was 
always rent or lifted. The shadows of this 
world, the radiance of hftScVen, and the glare of hell 
mixed and mingled untAoman became uncertain as 
to which country he really inhabited. Man dwelt 
in an unreal world. He mistook his ideas, his 
dreams, for real things. His fears became terrible 
and malicious monsters. He lived in the midst of 
furies and fairies, nymphs and naiads, goblins and 
ghosts, witches and wizards, sprites and spooks, 
deities and devils. The obscure and gloomy 
depths were filled with claw and wing — with 
beak and hoof — with leering looks and sneering 
mouths — with the malice of deformity — with 
the cunning of hatred, and with all the slimy 
forms that fear can draw and paint upon the shad- 
owy canvass of the dark. 



31 

It is enough to make one almost insane with 
pity to think what man in the long night has suf- 
fered ; of the tortures he has endured, surrounded, 
as he supposed, by malignant powers and clutched 
by the fierce phantoms of the air. JSTo wonder 
that he fell upon his trembling knees — that he 
built altars and reddened them even with his own 
blood. No wonder that he implored ignorant 
priests and impudent magicians for aid. No won- 
der that he crawled groveling in the dust to the 
temple's door, and there, in the insanity of despair, 
besought the deaf gods to hear his bitter cry of 
agony and fear. 

The savage, as he emerges from a state of barbar- 
ism, gradually loses faith in his idols of wood and 
stone, and in their place puts a multitude of spirits. 
As he advances in knowledge, he generally discards 
the petty spirits and in their stead believes in one, 
whom he supposes to be infinite and supreme. 
Supposing this great spirit to be superior to na- 
ture, he offers worship or flattery in exchange 
for assistance. At last, finding that he obtains no 
aid from this supposed deity — finding that every 
search after the absolute must of necessity end in 
failure — finding that man cannot by any possibili- 
ty conceive of the conditionless — he begins to 
investigate the facts by which he is surrounded, 
and to depend upon himself. 

The people are beginning to think, to reason. 



32 

and to investigate. Slowly, painfully, but surely, 
the gods are being driven from tlie earth. Only 
upon rare occasions are they, even by the most 
religious, supposed to interfere in the affairs of 
men. In most matters we are at last supposed to 
be free. Since the invention of steamships and 
railways, so that the products of all countries can 
be easily interchanged, the gods have quit the busi- 
ness of producing famine. Now and then they 
kill a child because it is idolized by its parents. 
As a rule they have given up causing accidents on 
railroads, exploding boilers, and bursting kerosene 
lamps. Cholera, yellow fever, and small-pox are 
still considered heavenly weapons ; but measles, 
itch and ague are now attributed to natural causes. 
As a general thing, the gods have stopped drown- 
ing children, except as a punishment for violating 
the Sabbath. They still pay some attention to 
the affairs of kings, men of genius and persons of 
great wealth ; but ordinary people are left to shirk 
for themselves as best they may. In wars between 
great nations, the gods still interfere ; but in prize 
fights, the best man, with an honest referree, is 
almost sure to win. 

The church cannot abandon the idea of special 
providence. To give up that doctrine, is to give 
up all. The church must insist that prayer is 
answered — that some power superior to nature 
hears and grants the request of the sincere and 



33 

humble Christian, and that this same power in some 
mysterious way provides for all. 

A devout clergyman sought every opportunity 
to impress upon the mind of his son the fact, that 
God takes care of all his creatures ; that the fall- 
ing sparrow attracts his attention, and that his 
loving kindness is over all his works. Happening, 
one day, to see a crane wading in quest of food, 
the good man pointed out to his son the perfect 
adaptation of the crane to get his living in that 
manner. "See," said he, "how his legs are formed 
for wading ! What a long slender bill he has ! 
Observe how nicely he folds his feet when putting 
them in or drawing them out of the water ! He 
does not cause the slightest ripple. He is thus 
enabled to approach the fish without giving them 
any notice of his arrival." " My son," said he, " it is 
impossible to look at that bird without recognizing 
the design, as well as the goodness of God, in thus 
providing the means of subsistence." "Yes," 
replied the boy, " I think I see the goodness of 
God, at least so far as the crane is concerned ; but 
after all, father, don't you think the arrangement 
a little tough on the fish ? " 

Even the advanced religionist, although disbe- 
lieving in any great amount of interference by the 
gods in this age of the world, still thinks, that in 
the beginning, some god made the laws governing 
the universe. He believes that in consequence of 
5 



34 

these laws a man can lift a greater weight with, 
than without, a lever; that this god so made 
matter, and so established the order of things, that 
two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the 
same time ; so that a body once put in motion will 
keep moving until it is stopped ; so that it is a 
greater distance around, than across a circle ; so 
that a perfect square has four equal sides, instead 
of five or seven. He insists that it took a direct 
interposition of providence to make the whole 
greater than a part, and that had it not been for 
this power superior to nature, twice one might 
have been more than twice two, and sticks and 
strings might have had only one end apiece. Like 
the old Scotch divine, he thanks God that Sunday 
comes at the end instead of in the middle of the 
week, and that death comes at the close instead of 
at the commencement of life, thereby giving us time 
to prepare for that holy day and that most solemn 
event. These religious people see nothing but 
design everywhere, and personal, intelligent inter- 
ference in everything. They insist that the uni- 
verse has been created, and that the adaptation of 
means to ends is perfectly apparent. They point 
us to the sunshine, to the flowers, to the April 
rain, and to all there is of beauty and of use in the 
world. Did it ever occur to them that a cancer is 
as beautiful in its developement as is the reddest 
rose? That what they are pleased to call the 



35 

adaptation of means to ends, is as apparent in the 
cancer as in the April rain ? How beautiful the 
process of digestion ! By what ingenious methods 
the blood is poisoned so that the cancer shall have 
food ! By what wonderful contrivances the entire 
system of man is made to pay tribute to this divine 
and charming cancer ! See by what admirable 
instrumentalities it feeds itself from the surround- 
ing quivering, dainty flesh ! See how it gradually 
but surely expands and grows ! By what marvel- 
ous mechanism it is supplied with long and slender 
roots that reach out to the most secret nerves of 
pain for sustenance and life! What beautiful 
colors it presents ! Seen through the microscope, 
it is a miracle of order and beauty. All the 
ingenuity of man cannot stop its growth. Think 
of the amount of thought it must have required to 
invent a way by which the life of one man might 
be given to produce one cancer? Is it possible to 
look upon it and doubt that there is design in the 
universe, and that the inventor of this wonderful 
cancer must be infinitely powerful, ingenious and 
good? 

We are told that the universe was designed and 
created, and that it is absurd to suppose that mat- 
ter has existed from eternity, but that it is perfectly 
self-evident that a god has. 

If a god created the universe, then, there must 
have been a time when he commenced to create. 



36 

Back of that time there must have been an eternity, 
during which there had existed nothing — abso- 
lutely nothing — except this supposed god. Accord- 
ing to this theory, this god spent an eternity, so to 
speak, in an infinite vacuum, and in perfect idleness. 
Admitting that a god did create the universe, 
the question then arises, of what did he create it ? 
It certainly was not made of nothing. Nothing, 
considered in the light of a raw material, is a most 
decided failure. It follows then, that the god must 
have made the universe out of himself, he being 
the only existence. The universe is material, and 
if it was made of god, the god must have been 
material. With this very thought in his mind, 
Anaximander of Miletus said : '^ Creation is the 
decomposition of the infinite." 

It has been demonstrated that the earth would 
fall to the sun, only for the fact, that it is attracted 
by other worlds, and those worlds must be 
attracted by other worlds still beyond them, and 
so on, without end. This proves the material uni- 
verse to be infinite. If an infinite universe has 
been made out of an infinite god, how much of the 
god is left ? 

The idea of a creative deity is gradually being 
abandoned, and nearly all truly scientific minds 
admit that matter must have existed from eternity. 
It is indestructible, and the indestructible cannot 
be created. It is the crowning glory of our can- 



37 

tury to have demonstrated tlie indestructibility 
and tlie eternal persistence of force. ISTeitlier mat- 
ter nor force can be increased nor diminished. 
Force cannot exist apart from matter. Matter 
exists only in connection with force, and conse- 
quently, a force apart from matter, and superior to 
nature, is a demonstrated impossibility. 

Force then must have also existed from eternity, 
and could not have been created. Matter, in its 
countless forms, from dead earth to the eyes of 
those we love, and force, in all its manifestations, 
from simple motion to the grandest thought, deny 
creation and defy control. 

Thought is a form of force. "We walk with the 
same force with which we think. Man is an 
organism, that changes several forms of force into 
thought-force. Man is a machine into which we 
put what we call food, and produce what we call 
thought. Think of that wonderful chemistry by 
which bread was changed into the divine tragedy 
of Hamlet ! 

A god must not only be material, but he must 
be an organism, capable of changing other forms 
of force into thought-force. This is what we call 
eating. Therefore, if the god thinks, he must eat, 
that is to say, he must of necessity have some 
means of supplying the force with which to think. 
It is impossible to conceive of a being who can 



38 

eternally impart force to matter, and yet have no 
means of supplying tlie force thus imparted. 

If neither matter nor force were created, what 
evidence have we then, of the existence of a power 
superior to nature ? The theologian will probably 
reply, " We have law and order, cause and effect, 
and besides all this, matter could not have put 
itself in motion." 

Suppose, for the sake of the argument, that 
there is no being superior to nature, and that mat- 
ter and force have existed from eternity. Now 
suppose that two atoms should come together, 
would there be an effect? Yes. Suppose they 
came in exactly opposite directions with equal 
force, they would be stopped, to say the least. 
This would be an effect. If this is so, then you 
have matter, force and effect without a being 
superior to nature. Now suppose that two other 
atoms, just like the first two, should come together 
under precisely the same circumstances, would not 
the effect be exactly the same ? Yes. Like causes, 
producing like effects, is what we mean by law and 
order. Then we have matter, force, effect, law and 
order without a being superior to nature. Now, we 
know that every effect must also be a cause, and 
that every cause must be an effect. The atoms 
coming together did produce an effect, and as 
every effect must also be a cause, the effect pro- 
duced by the collision of the atoms, must as to 



39 

something else have been a cause. Then we have 
matter, force, law, order, cause and effect without 
a being superior to nature. Nothing is left for the 
supernatural but empty space. His throne is a 
void, and his boasted realm is without matter, 
without force, without law, without cause, and 
without effect. 

But what put all this matter in motion ? If mat- 
ter and force have existed from eternity, then 
matter must have always been in motion. There 
can be no force without motion. Force is forever 
active, and there is, and there can be no cessation. 
If, therefore, matter and force have existed from 
eternity, so has motion. In the whole universe 
there is not even one atom in a state of rest. 

A deity outside of nature exists in nothing, and 
is nothing. I^ature embraces with infinite arms all 
matter and all force. That which is beyond her 
grasp is destitute of both, and can hardly be worth 
the worship and adoration even of a man. 

There is but one way to demonstrate the exist- 
ence of a power independent of and superior to 
nature, and that is by breaking, if only for one 
moment, the continuity of cause and effect. Pluck 
from the endless chain of existence one little link ; 
stop for one instant the grand procession, and you 
have shown beyond all contradiction that nature 
has a master. Change the fact, just for one second, 
that matter attracts matter, and a god appears. 



40 

The rudest savage has always known this fact, 
and for that reason always demanded the evidence 
of miracle. The founder of a religion must be able 
to turn water into wine — cure with a word the 
blind and lame, and raise with a simple touch the 
dead to life. It was necessary for him to demon- 
strate to the satisfaction of his barbarian disciple, 
that he was superior to nature. In times of igno- 
rance, this was easy to do. The credulity of the 
savage was almost boundless. To him, the mar- 
velous was the beautiful, the mysterious was the 
sublime. Consequently, every religion has for its 
foundation a miracle — that is to say, a violation of 
nature — that is to say, a falsehood. 

No one, in the world's whole history, ever 
attempted to substantiate a truth by a miracle. 
Truth scorns the assistance of miracle. Nothing 
but falsehood ever attested itself by signs and 
wonders. No miracle ever was performed, and no 
sane man ever thought he had performed one, 
and until one is performed, there can be no evi- 
dence of the existence of any power superior to, 
and independent of nature. 

The church wishes us to believe. Let the 
church, or one of its intellectual saints, perform a 
miracle, and we will believe. We are told that 
nature has a superior. Let this superior, for one 
single instant, control nature, and we will admit 
the truth of your assertions. 



41 

We have heard talk enough. We have listened 
to all the drowsy, idealess, vapid sermons that we 
wish to hear. We have read your bible, and the 
works of your best minds. We have heard your 
prayers, your solemn groans and your reverential 
amens. All these amount to less than nothing. 
We want one fact. We beg at the doors of your 
churches for just one little fact. We pass our hats 
along your pews and under your pulpits and 
implore you for just one fact. We know all about 
your mouldy wonders and your stale miracles. 
We want a this year's fact. We ask only one. 
Give us one fact for charity. Your miracles are 
too ancient. The witnesses have been dead for 
nearly two thousand years. Their reputation for 
"truth and veracity" in the neighborhood where 
they resided is wholly unknown to us. Give us a 
new miracle, and substantiate it by witnesses who 
still have the cheerful habit of living in this 
world. Do not send us to Jericho to hear the wind- 
ing horns, nor put us in the fire with Meshech, 
Shadrach and Abednego. Do not compel us to 
navigate the sea with Captain Jonah, nor dine 
with Mr. Ezekiel. There is no sort of use in send- 
ing us fox-hunting with Samson. We have posi- 
tively lost all interest in that little speech so 
eloquently delivered by Balaam's inspired donkey. 
It is worse than useless to show us fishes with 
money in their mouths, and call our attention to 
6 



42 

vast multitudes stuffing themselves with five 
crackers and two sardines. We demand a new 
miracle, and we demand it now. Let the church 
furnish at least one, or forever after hold her 
peace. 

In the olden time, the church, by violating the 
order of nature, proved the existence of her God. 
At that time miracles were performed with the 
most astonishing ease. They became so common 
that the church ordered her priests to desist. And 
now this same church — the people having found 
some little sense — admits, not only, that she can- 
not perform a miracle, but insists that the absence 
of miracle — the steady, unbroken march of cause 
and effect, prove the existence of a power superior 
to nature. The fact is, however, that the indis- 
soluble chain of cause and effect proves exactly the 
contrary. 

Sir William Hamilton, one of the pillars of 
modern theology, in discussing this very subject, 
uses the following language : "The phenomena of 
matter taken by themselves, so far from warranting 
any inference to the existence of a god, would on 
the contrary ground even an argument to his nega- 
tion. The phenomena of the material world are 
subjected to immutable laws ; are produced and 
reproduced in the same invariable succession, and 
manifest only the blind force of a mechanical 
necessity." 



43 

Nature is but an endless series of efficient causes. 
She cannot create, but she eternally transforms. 
There was no beginning, and there can be no end. 

The best minds, even in the religious world, 
admit that in material nature there is no evidence 
of what they are pleased to call a god. They find 
their evidence in the phenomena of intelligence, 
and very innocently assert that intelligence is 
above, and in fact, opposed to nature. They insist 
that man, at least, is a special creation ; that he 
has somewhere in his brain a divine spark, a little 
portion of the " Great First Cause." They say that 
matter cannot produce thought ; but that thought 
can produce matter. They tell us that man has 
intelligence, and therefore there must be an intelli- 
gence greater than his. Why not say : God has 
intelligence, therefore there must be an intelligence 
greater than his ? So far as we know there is no 
intelligence apart from matter. We cannot con- 
ceive of thought, except as produced within a 
brain. 

The science, by means of which they demonstrate 
the existence of an impossible intelligence, and an 
incomprehensible power, is called, metaphysics or 
theology. The theologians admit that the phe- 
nomena of matter tend, at least, to disprove the 
existence of any power superior to nature, because 
in such phenomena we see nothing but an endless 
chain of efficient causes — nothing but the force of 



44 

a mechanical necessity. They therefore appeal to 
what they denominate the phenomena of mind to 
establish this superior power. 

The trouble is, that in the phenomena of mind 
we find the same endless chain of efficient causes,; 
the same mechanical necessity. Every thought 
must have had an efficient cause. Every motive, 
every desire, every fear, hope and dream must 
have been necessarily produced. There is no room 
in the mind of man for providence or chance. The 
facts and forces governing thought are as absolute 
as those governing the motions of the planets. A 
poem is produced by the forces of nature, and is as 
necessarily and naturally produced as mountains 
and seas. You will seek in vain for a thought in 
man's brain without its efficient cause. Every 
mental operation is the necessary result of certain 
facts and conditions. Mental phenomena are con- 
sidered more complicated than those of matter, 
and consequently more mysterious. Being more 
mysterious, they are considered better evidence of 
the existence of a god. No one infers a god from 
the simple, from the known, from what is under- 
stood, but from the complex, from the unknown, 
and incomprehensible. Our ignorance is God ; 
what we know is science. 

When we abandon the doctrine that some infinite 
being created matter and force, and enacted a code 
of laws for their government, the idea of interfer- 



45 

ence will be lost. The real priest will then be, 
not the mouth-piece of some pretended deity, but 
the interpreter of nature. From that moment the 
church ceases to exist. The tapers will die out 
upon the dusty altar; the moths will eat the fading 
velvet of pulpit and pew ; the Bible will take its 
place with the Shastras, Puranas, Vedas, Eddas, 
Sagas and Korans, and the fetters of a degrading 
faith will fall from the minds of men. 

" But,'' says the religionist, "you cannot explain 
everything ; you cannot understand everything ; 
and that which you cannot explain, that which 
you do not comprehend, is my God." 

We are explaining more every day. We are 
understanding more every day; consequently your 
God is growing smaller every day. 

!N"othing daunted, the religionist then insists, 
that nothing can exist without a cause, except 
cause, and that this uncaused cause, is God. 

To this we again reply : Every cause must pro- 
duce an effect, because until it does produce an 
effect, it is not a cause. Every effect must in its 
turn become a cause. Therefore, in the nature of 
things, there cannot be a last cause, for the reason 
that a so-called last cause would necessarily pro- 
duce an effect, and that effect must of necessity 
become a cause. The converse of these proposi- 
tions must be true. Every effect must have had a 
cause, and every cause must have been an effect. 



46 

Therefore, there could have been no first cause. A 
first cause is just as impossible as a last effect. 

Beyond the universe there is nothing, and within 
the universe the supernatural does not and cannot 
exist. 

The moment these great truths are understood 
and admitted, a belief in general or special provi- 
dence becomes impossible. From that instant 
men will cease their vain efforts to please an 
imaginary being, and will give their time and 
attention to the affairs of this world. They will 
abandon the idea of attaining any object by prayer 
and supplication. The element of uncertainty 
will, in a great measure, be removed from the 
domain of the future, and man, gathering courage 
from a succession of victories over the obstructions 
of nature, will attain a serene grandeur unknown 
to the disciples of any superstition. The plans 
of mankind will no longer be interfered with by 
the finger of a supposed omnipotence, and no one 
will believe that nations or individuals are pro- 
tected or destroyed by any deity whatever. 
Science, freed from the chains of pious custom 
and evangelical prejudice, will, within her sphere, 
be supreme. The mind will investigate without 
reverence, and publish its conclusions without fear. 
Agassiz will no longer hesitate to declare the 
Mosaic cosmogony utterly inconsistent with the 
demonstrated truths of geology, and will cease 



47 

pretending any reverence for the Jewish scriptures. 
The moment science succeeds in rendering the 
church powerless for evil, the real thinkers will be 
outspoken. The little flags of truce carried by 
timid philosophers, will disappear, and the coward- 
ly parley will give place to victory — lasting and 
universal. 

If we admit that some infinite being has con- 
trolled the destinies of persons and peoples, his- 
tory becomes a most cruel and bloody farce. Age 
after age, the strong have trampled upon the 
weak ; the crafty and heartless have ensnared and 
enslaved the simple and innocent, and nowhere, in 
all the annals of mankind, has any god succored 
the oppressed. 

Man should cease to expect aid from on high. 
By this time he should know that heaven has no 
ear to hear, and no hand to help. The present is 
the necessary child of all the past. There has 
been no chance, and there can be no interference. 

If abuses are destroyed, man must destroy 
them. If slaves are freed, man must free them. 
If new truths are discovered, man must discover 
them. If the naked are clothed ; if the hungry 
are fed ; if justice is done ; if labor is rewarded ; 
if superstition is driven from the mind ; if the de- 
fenceless are protected, and if the right finally 
triumphs, all must be the work of man. The 



48 

grand victories of tlie future must be won by man, 
and by man alone. 

Nature, so far as we can discern, without passion 
and without intention, forms, transforms, and re- 
transforms forever. She neither weeps nor rejoices. 
She produces man without purpose, and obliterates 
him without regret. She knows no distinction be- 
tween the beneficial and the hurtful. Poison and 
nutrition, pain and joy, life and death, smiles and 
tears are alike to her. She is neither merciful nor 
cruel. She can not be flattered by worship nor 
melted by tears. She does not know even the 
attitude of prayer. She appreciates no difference 
between poison in the fangs of snakes and mercy 
in the hearts of men. Only through man does 
nature take cognizance of the good, the true, and 
the beautiful ; and, so far as we know, man is the 
highest intelligence. 

And yet man continues to believe that there is 
some power independent of and superior to nature, 
and still endeavors, by form, ceremony, supplica- 
tion, hypocrisy and sacrifice, to obtain its aid. 
His best energies have been wasted in the service 
of this phantom. The horrors of witchcraft were 
all born of an ignorant belief in the existence of 
a totally depraved being superior to nature, acting 
in perfect independence of her laws ; and all reli- 
gious superstition has had for its basis a belief, in 
at least two beings, one good and the other bad, 



49 

both of whom could arbitrarily change the order 
of the universe. The history of religion is simply 
the story of man's efforts in all ages to avoid one 
of these powers, and to pacify the other. Both 
powers have inspired little else than abject fear. 
The cold, calculating sneer of the devil, and the 
frown of God, were equally terrible. In any 
event, man's fate was to be arbitrarily fixed for- 
ever by an unknown power superior to all law, 
and to all fact. Until this belief is thrown aside, 
man must consider himself the slave of phantom 
masters — neither of whom promise liberty in this 
world nor the next. 

Man must learn to rely upon himself. Reading 
bibles will not protect him from the blasts of win- 
ter, but houses, fires, and clothing will. To pre- 
vent famine, one plow is worth a million sermons, 
and even patent medicines will cure more diseases 
than all the prayers uttered since the beginning of 
the world. 

Although many eminent men have endeavored 
to harmonize necessity and free will, the existence 
of evil, and the infinite power and goodness of 
God, they have only succeeded in producing 
learned and ingenious failures. Immense efforts 
have been made to reconcile ideas utterly incon- 
sistent with the facts by which we are surrounded, 
and all persons who have failed to perceive the 
pretended reconciliation, have been denounced as 
7 



50 

infidels, atheists and scoffers. The whole power 
of the church has been brought to bear against 
philosophers and scientists in order to compel a 
denial of the authority of demonstration, and to 
induce some Judas to betray Reason, one of the 
saviours of mankind. 

During that frightful period known as the 
" Dark Ages," Faith reigned, with scarcely a re- 
bellious subject. Her temples were "carpeted 
with knees," and the wealth of nations adorned 
her countless shrines. The great painters prosti- 
tuted their genius to immortalize her vagaries, 
while the poets enshrined them in song. At her 
bidding, man covered the earth with blood. The 
scales of Justice were turned with her gold, and 
for her use were invented all the cunning instru- 
ments of pain. She built cathedrals for God, and 
dungeons for men. She peopled the clouds with 
angels and the earth with slaves. For centuries 
the world was retracing its steps — going steadily 
back towards barbaric night. A few infidels — 
a few heretics cried, " Halt ! " to the great rabble 
of ignorant devotion, and made it possible for the 
genius of the nineteenth century to revolutionize 
the cruel creeds and superstitions of mankind. 

The thoughts of man, in order to be of any real 
worth, must be free. Under the influence of fear, 
the brain is paralyzed, and instead of bravely 
solving a problem for itself, tremblingly adopts 



I 



51 

the solution of another. As long as a majority of 
men will cringe to the very earth before some 
petty prince or king, what must be the infinite 
abjectness of their little souls in the presence of 
their supposed creator and God ? Under such, cir- 
cumstances, what can their thoughts be worth ? 

The originality of repetition, and the mental 
vigor of acquiescence, are all that we have any right 
to expect from the Christian world. As long as 
every question is answered by the word, " god," sci- 
entific inquiry is simply impossible. As fast as 
phenomena are satisfactorily explained, the do- 
main of the power, supposed to be superior to 
nature, must decrease, while the horizon of the 
known must as constantly continue to enlarge. 

It is no longer satisfactory to account for the 
fall and rise of nations by saying : " It is the will 
of God." Such an explanation puts ignorance 
and education upon an exact equality, and does 
away with the id^a of really accounting for any- 
thing whatever. 

Will the religionist pretend that the real end of 
science is, to ascertain how, and why God acts ? 
Science, from such a stand-point would consist in 
investigating the law of arbitrary action, and in a 
grand endeavor to ascertain the rules necessarily 
obeyed by infinite caprice. 

From a philosophic point of view, science is a 
knowledge of the laws of life ; of the conditions 



52 

of happiness; of the facts by whicli we are sur- 
rounded, and the relations we sustain to men and 
things — by means of which, man, so to speak, 
subjugates nature, and bends the elemental pow- 
ers to his will, making blind force the servant of 
his brain. 

A belief in special providence does away with 
the spirit of investigation, and is inconsistent with 
personal effort. Why should man endeavor to 
thwart the designs of God ? Which of you, by 
taking thought, can add one cubit to his stat- 
ure? Under the influence of this belief, man, 
basking in the sunshine of a delusion, considers 
the lilies of the field and refuses to take any 
thought for the morrow. Believing himself in the 
power of an infinite being, who can, at any mo- 
ment, dash him to the lowest hell or raise him to 
the highest heaven, he necessarily abandons the 
idea of accomplishing anything by his own efforts. 
As long as this belief was general, the world was 
filled with ignorance, superstition and misery. 
The energies of man were wasted in a vain effort 
to obtain the aid of this power, supposed to be 
superior to nature. For countless ages, even men 
were sacrificed upon the altar of this impossible 
god. To please him, mothers have shed the blood 
of their own babes ; martyrs have chanted tri- 
umphant songs in the midst of flame ; priests have 
gorged themselves with blood; nuns have for- 



53 

sworn the ecstacies of love ; old men have trem- 
blingly implored ; women have sobbed and 
entreated ; every pain has been endured, and 
every horror has been perpetrated. 

Through the dim, long years that have fled, 
humanity has suffered more than can be conceived. 
Most of the misery has been endured by the weak, 
the loving and the innocent. Women have been 
treated like poisonous beasts, and little children 
trampled upon as though they had been 
vermin. Numberless altars have been reddened, 
even with the blood of babes ; beautiful girls 
have been given to slimy serpents ; whole races 
of men doomed to centuries of slavery, and every- 
where there has been outrage beyond the power 
of genius to express. During all these years, 
the suffering have supplicated ; the withered lips 
of famine have prayed ; the pale victims have im- 
plored, and Heaven has been deaf and blind. 

Of what use have the gods been to man ? 

It is no answer to say that some god created the 
world, established certain laws, and then turned 
his attention to other matters, leaving his children 
weak, ignorant and unaided, to fight the battle of 
life alone. It is no solution to declare that in 
some other world this god will render a few, or 
even all, his subjects happy. What right have 
we to expect that a perfectly wise, good, and pow- 
erftd being wiU ever do better than he has done, 



54 

and is doing ? The world is filled with imperfec- 
tions. If it was made by an infinite being, what 
reason have we for saying that he will render it 
nearer perfect than it now is? If the infinite 
"Father" allows a majority of his children to live 
in ignorance and wretchedness now, what evi- 
dence is there that he will ever improve their con- 
dition? Will God have more power? Will he 
become more merciful ? Will his love for his poor 
creatures increase? Can the conduct of infinite 
wisdom, power and love ever change ? Is the in- 
finite capable of any improvement whatever ? 

We are informed by the clergy that this world 
is a kind of school ; that the evils by which we are 
surrounded are for the purpose of developing our 
souls, and that only by suffering can men become 
pure, strong, virtuous and grand. 

Supposing this to be true, what is to become of 
those who die in infancy? The little children, 
according to this philosophy, can never be devel- 
oped. They were so fortunate as to escape the 
ennobling influences of pain and misery, and as a 
consequence, are doomed to an eternity of mental 
inferiority. If the clergy are right on this ques- 
tion, none are so unfortunate as the happy, and we 
should envy only the suffering and distressed. If 
evil is necessary to the development of man, in 
this life, how is it possible for the soul to improve 
in the perfect joy of paradise ? 



55 

Since Paley found his watch, the argument of 
" design " has been relied upon as unanswerable. 
The church teaches that this world, and all that it 
contains, were created substantially as we now see 
them ; that the grasses, the flowers, the trees, and 
all animals, including man, were special creations, 
and that they sustain no necessary relation to each 
other. The most orthodox will admit that some 
earth has been washed into the sea ; that the sea 
has encroached a little upon the land, and that 
some mountains may be a trifle lower than in the 
morning of creation. The theory of gradual 
development was unknown to our fathers ; the 
idea of evolution did not occur to them. That 
most wonderful observer, Charles Darwin, had not 
then given to the world his wonderful philosophy. 
Our fathers looked upon the then arrangement of 
things as the primal arrangement. The earth 
appeared to them fresh from the hands of a deity. 
They knew nothing of the slow evolutions of count- 
less years, but supposed that the almost infinite 
variety of vegetable and animal forms had existed 
from the first. 

Suppose that upon some island we should find a 
man a million years of age, and suppose that we 
should find him in the possession of a most beauti- 
ful carriage, constructed upon the most perfect 
model. And suppose further, that he should tell 
us that it was the result of several hundred thou- 



/ 



66 

sand years of labor and of thought ; that for fifty 
thousand years he used as flat a log as he could 
find, before it occurred to him, that by splitting 
the log, he could have the same surface with only 
half the weight ; that it took him many thousand 
years to invent wheels for this log ; that the wheels 
he first used were solid, and that fifty thousand 
years of thought suggested the use of spokes and 
tire ; that for many centuries he used the wheels 
without linch-pins ; that it took a hundred thou- 
sand years more to think of using four wheels, 
instead of two ; that for ages, he walked behind 
the carriage, when going down hill, in order to 
hold it back, and that only by a lucky chance he 
invented the tongue, would we conclude that 
this man, from the very first, had been an infinitely 
ingenious and perfect mechanic ? Suppose we 
found him living in an elegant mansion, and he 
should inform us that he lived in that house for -Q-ve 
hundred thousand years before he thought of put- 
ting on a roof, and that he had but recently 
invented windows and doors, would we say that 
from the beginning, he had been an infinitely 
accomplished and scientific architect ? 

Does not an improvement in the things created, 
show a corresponding improvement in the creator ? 

Would an infinitely wise, good and powerful 
God, intending to produce man, commence with 
the lowest possible forms of life ; with the simplest 



57 

organism that can be imagined, and during 
immeasurable periods of time, slowly and almost 
imperceptibly improve upon the rude beginning, 
until man was evolved ? Would countless ages 
thus be wasted in the production of awkward 
forms, afterwards abandoned ? Can the intelli- 
gence of man discover the least wisdom in covering 
the earth with crawling, creeping horrors, that 
live only upon the agonies and pangs of others ? 
Can we see the propriety of so constructing the 
earth, that only an insignificant portion of its sur- 
face is capable of producing an intelligent man ? 
Who can appreciate the mercy of so making the 
world that all animals devour animals ; so that 
every mouth is a slaughter-house, and every 
stomach a tomb ? Is it possible to discover infinite 
intelligence and love in universal and eternal 
carnage ? 

What would we think of a father, who should 
give a farm to his children, and before giving 
them possession should plant upon it thousands of 
deadly shrubs and vines ; should stock it with 
ferocious beasts, and poisonous reptiles; should 
take pains to put a few swamps in the neighbor- 
hood to breed malaria ; should so arrange matters, 
that the ground would occasionally open and 
swallow a few of his darlings, and besides all this, 
should establish a few volcanoes in the immediate 
vicinity, that might at any moment overwhelm his 
8 



58 

children with rivers of fire ? Suppose that this 
father neglected to tell his children which of the 
plants were deadly ; that the reptiles were poison- 
ous ; failed to say anything about the earthquakes, 
and kept the volcano business a profound secret, 
would we pronounce him angel or fiend ? 

And yet this is exactly what the orthodox God 
has done. 

According to the theologians, God prepared this 
globe expressly for the habitation of his loved 
children, and yet he filled the forests with ferocious 
beasts ; placed serpents in every path ; stuffed the 
world with earthquakes, and adorned its surface 
with mountains of flame. 

Notwithstanding all this, we are told that the 
world is perfect ; that it was created by a perfect 
being, and is therefore necessarily perfect. The 
next moment, these same persons will tell us that 
the world was cursed ; covered with brambles, 
thistles and thorns, and that man was doomed to 
disease and death, simply because our poor, dear 
mother ate an apple contrary to the command of 
an arbitrary God. 

A very pious friend of mine, having heard that 
I had said the world was full of imperfections, 
asked me if the report was true. Upon being 
informed that it was, he expressed great surprise 
that any one could be guilty of such presumption. 
He said that, in his judgment, it was impossible to 



59 

point out an imperfection. " Be kind enough," 
said he, 'Ho name even one improvement that you 
could make, if you had the power." " Well," said 
I, " I would make good health catching, instead of 
disease." The truth is, it is impossible to harmon- 
ize all the ills, and pains, and agonies of this 
world with the idea that we were created by, and 
are watched over and protected by an infinitely 
wise, powerful and beneficient God, who is superior 
to, and independent of nature. 

The clergy, however, balance all the real ills of 
this life with the expected joys of the next. 
We are assured that all is perfection in heaven — 
there the skies are cloudless — there all is serenity 
and peace. Here empires may be overthrown; 
dynasties may be extinguished in blood ; millions 
of slaves may toil 'neath the fierce rays of the 
sun, and the cruel strokes of the lash, yet all is 
happiness in heaven. Pestilences may strew the 
earth with corpses of the loved ; the survivors 
may bend above them in agony — yet the placid 
bosom of heaven is unruffled. Children may ex- 
pire vainly asking for bread ; babes may be 
devoured by serpents, while the gods sit smiling 
in the clouds. The innocent may languish unto 
death in the obscurity of dungeons ; brave men and 
heroic women may be changed to ashes at the 
bigot's stake, while heaven is filled with song and 
joy. Out on the wide sea, in darkness and in 



60 

storm, tlie ship- wrecked struggle witli the cruel 
waves while the angels play upon their golden 
harps. The streets of the world are filled with 
the diseased, the deformed and the helpless ; the 
chambers of pain are crowded with the pale forms 
of the suffering, while the angels float and fly in 
the happy realms of day. In heaven they are too 
happy to have sympathy ; too busy singing to aid 
the imploring and distressed. Their eyes are 
blinded ; their ears are stopped and their hearts 
are turned to stone by the infinite selfishness of 
joy. The saved mariner is too happy when he 
touches the shore to give a moment's thought to 
his drowning brothers. With the indifference of 
happiness, with the contempt of bliss, heaven 
barely glances at the miseries of earth. Cities are 
devoured by the rushing lava ; the earth opens and 
thousands perish ; women raise their clasped hands 
towards heaven, but the gods are too happy to aid 
their children. The smiles of the deities are unac- 
quainted with the tears of men. The shouts of 
heaven drown the sobs of earth. 

In all ages, man has prayed for help, and then 
helped himself. 

Having shown how man created gods, and how 
he became the trembling slave of his own creation, 
the questions naturally arise : How did he free 
himself, even a little, from these monarchs of the 
skj ; from these despots of the clouds ; from this 



61 

aristocracy of the air ? How did he, even to the 
extent that he has, outgrow his ignorant, abject 
terror, and throw off the yoke of superstition ? 

Probably, the first thing that tended to disabuse 
his mind was the discovery of order, of regularity, 
of periodicity in the universe. From this, he began 
to suspect that everything did not happen, purely 
with reference to him. He noticed, that whatever 
he might do, the motions of the planets were 
always the same; that eclipses were periodical, and 
that even comets came at certain intervals. This 
convinced him that eclipses and comets had noth- 
ing to do with him, and that his conduct had 
nothing to do with them. He perceived that they 
were not caused for his benefit or injury. He thus 
learned to regard them with admiration instead of 
fear. He began to suspect that famine was not 
sent by some enraged and revengeful deity, but 
resulted often from the neglect and ignorance of 
man. He learned that diseases were not produced 
by evil spirits. He found that sickness was occa- 
sioned by natural causes, and could be cured by 
natural means. He demonstrated, to his own sat- 
isfaction at least, that prayer is not a medicine. 
He found by sad experience that his gods were of 
no practical use, as they never assisted him, except 
when he was perfectly able to help himself. At 
last, he began to discover that his individual action 
had nothing whatever to do with strange appear- 



62 

ances in the heavens ; that it was impossible for 
him to be bad enough to cause a whirlwind, or 
good enough to stop one. After many centuries 
of thought, he about half concluded that making 
mouths at a priest would not necessarily cause an 
earthquake. He noticed, and no doubt with con- 
siderable astonishment, that very good men were 
occasionally struck by lightning, while very bad 
ones escaped. He was frequently forced to the 
painful conclusion (and it is the most painful to 
which any human being ever was forced) that the 
right did not always prevail. He noticed that the 
gods did not interfere in behalf of the weak and 
innocent. He was now and then astonished by 
seeing an unbeliever in the enjoyment of most 
excellent health. He finally ascertained that there 
could be no possible connection between an unusu- 
ally severe winter and his failure to give a sheep 
to a priest. He began to suspect that the order of 
the universe was not constantly being changed to 
assist him because he repeated a creed. He 
observed that some children would steal after 
having been regularly baptized. He noticed a 
vast difference between religion and justice, and 
that the worshippers of the same God, took delight 
in cutting each other's throats. He saw that these 
religious disputes filled the world with hatred and 
slavery. At last he had the courage to suspect, 
that no God at any time interferes with the order 



63 

of events. He learned a few facts, and these facts 
positively refused to harmonize with the ignorant 
superstitions of his fathers. Finding his sacred 
books incorrect and false in some particulars, his 
faith in their authenticity began to be shaken ; 
finding his priests ignorant upon some points, he 
began to lose respect for the cloth : This was the 
commencement of intellectual freedom. 

The civilization of man has increased just to the 
same extent that religious power has decreased. 
The intellectual advancement of man depends 
upon how often he can exchange an old supersti- 
tion for a new truth. The church never enabled a 
human being to make even one of these exchanges; 
on the contrary, all her power has been used to 
prevent them. In spite, however, of the church, 
man found that some of his religious conceptions 
were wrong. By reading his bible, he found that 
the ideas of his God were more cruel and brutal 
than those of the most depraved savage. He also 
discovered that this holy book was filled with, 
ignorance, and that it must have been written by 
persons wholly unacquainted with the nature of 
the phenomena by which we are surrounded ; and 
now and then, some man had the goodness and 
courage to speak his honest thoughts. In every 
age some thinker, some doubter, some investigator, 
some hater of hypocrisy, some despiser of sham, 
some brave lover of the right, has gladly, proudly 



64 

and heroically braved the ignorant fury of super- 
stition for the sake of man and truth. These 
divine men were generally torn in pieces by the 
worshippers of the gods. Socrates was poisoned 
because he lacked reverence for some of the deities. 
Christ was crucified by a religious rabble for the 
crime of blasphemy. ISTothing is more gratifying 
to a religionist than to destroy his enemies at the 
command of God. Religious persecution springs 
from a due admixture of love towards God and 
hatred towards man. 

The terrible religious wars that inundated the 
world with blood, tended at least, to bring all 
religion into disgrace and hatred. Thoughtful 
people began to question the divine origin of a 
religion that made its believers hold the rights of 
others in absolute contempt. A few began to 
compare Christianity with the religions of heathen 
people, and were forced to admit that the differ- 
ence was hardly worth dying for. They also 
found that other nations were even happier and 
more prosperous than their own. They began to 
suspect that their religion, after all, was not of 
much real value. 

For three hundred years the Christian world 
endeavored to rescue from the " Infidel " the 
empty sepulchre of Christ. For three hundred 
years the armies of the Cross were baffled and 
beaten by the victorious hosts of an impudent 



65 

impostor. This immense fact sowed the seeds of 
distrust throughout all Christendom, and millions 
began to lose confidence in a God who had been 
vanquished by Mohammed. The people also found 
that commerce made friends where religion made 
enemies, and that religious zeal was utterly incom- 
patible with peace between nations or individuals. 
They discovered that those who loved the gods 
most were apt to love men least; that the arro- 
gance of universal forgiveness was amazing ; that 
the most malicious had the effrontery to pray for 
their enemies, and that humility and tyranny were 
the fruit of the same tree. 

For ages, a deadly conflict has been waged be- 
tween a few brave men and women of thought and 
genius upon the one side, and the great ignorant 
religious mass on the other. This is the war be- 
tween Science and Faith. The few have appealed 
to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom to the 
known, and to happiness here in this world. The 
many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to 
miracle, to slavery, to the unknown, and to misery 
hereafter. The few have said, "Think!" The 
many have said, " Believe ! " 

The first doubt was the womb and cradle of 
progress, and from the first doubt, man has con- 
tinued to advance. Men began to investigate, and 
the church began to oppose. The astronomer 
scanned the heavens, while the church branded his 
9 



66 

grand forehead with the word, " Infidel," and now, 
not a glittering star in all the vast expanse bears a 
Christian name. In spite of all religion, the geolo- 
gist penetrated the earth, read her history in books 
of stone, and found, hidden within her bosom, 
souvenirs of all the ages. Old ideas perished in 
the retort of the chemist, and useful truths took 
their places. One by one religious conceptions 
have been placed in the crucible of science, and 
thus far, nothing but dross has been found. A 
new world has been discovered by the microscope ; 
everywhere has been found the infinite ; in every 
direction, man has investigated and explored, and 
nowhere, in earth or stars, has been found the foot- 
step of any being superior to, or independent of 
nature. !N'o where has been discovered the slightest 
evidence of any interference from without. 

These are the sublime truths that enabled man 
to throw off the yoke of superstition. These are 
the splendid facts that snatched the sceptre of 
authority from the hands of priests. 

In that vast cemetery, called the past, are most 
of the religions of men, and there, too, are nearly 
all their gods. The sacred temples of India were 
ruins long ago. Over column and cornice ; over 
the painted and pictured walls, cling and creep 
the trailing vines. Brahma, the golden, with four 
heads, and four arms ; Vishnu, the sombre, the 
punisher of the wicked, with his three eyes, his 



67 

crescent, and his necklace of skulls ; Siva, the de- 
stroyer, red with seas of blood ; Kali, the goddess, 
Draupadi, the white-armed, and Chrishna, the 
Christ, all passed away and left the thrones of 
heaven desolate. Along the banks of the sacred 
Nile, Isis no longer wandering weeps, searching 
for tlie dead Osiris. The shadow of Typhon's 
scowl falls no more upon the waves. The sun rises 
as of yore, and his golden beams still smite the lips 
of Memnon, but Memnon is as voiceless as the 
Sphinx. The sacred fanes are lost in desert sands ; 
the dusty mummies are still waiting for the resur- 
rection promised by their priests, and the old 
beliefs, wrought in curiously sculptured stone, sleep 
in the mystery of a language lost and dead. Odin, 
the author of life and soul, Vili and Ve, and the 
mighty giant Ymir, strode long ago from the icy 
halls of the North ; and Thor, with iron glove and 
glittering hammer, dashes mountains to the earth 
no more. Broken are the circles, and cromlechs 
of tlie ancient Druids ; fallen upon the summits of 
the hills, and covered with the centuries' moss, are 
the sacred cairns. The divine fires of Persia and 
of the Aztecs, have died out in the ashes of the 
past, and there is none to rekindle, and none to 
feed the holy flames. The harp of Orpheus is 
still ; the drained cup of Bacchus has been thrown 
aside; Venus lies dead in stone, and her white 
bosom heaves no more with love. The streams 



6t 

still murmur, but no naiads bathe ; tlie trees still 
wave, but in the forest aisles no dryads dance. 
The gods have flown from high Olympus. Not 
even the beautiful women can lure them back, and 
even Danae lies unnoticed, naked to the stars. 
Hushed forever are the thunders of Sinai ; lost are 
the voices of the prophets, and the land, once flow- 
ing with milk and honey, is but a desert waste. 
One by one, the myths have faded from the clouds ; 
one by one, the phantom host has disappeared, 
and one by one, facts, truths and realities have 
taken their places. The supernatural has almost 
gone, but the natural remains. The gods have 
fled, but man is here. 

" Nations, like individuals, have their periods of 
youth, of manhood and decay." Religions are the 
same. The same inexorable destiny awaits them 
all. The gods, created by the nations, must perish 
with their creators. They were created by men, 
and like men, they must pass away. The deities 
of one age are the by-words of the next. The 
religion of our day, and country, is no more exempt 
from the sneer of the future than the others have 
been. When India was supreme, Brahma sat upon 
the world's throne. When the sceptre passed to 
Egypt, Isis and Osiris received the homage of 
mankind. Greece, with her fierce valor, swept to 
empire, and Jove put on the purple of authority. 
The earth trembled with the tread of Rome's in- 



69 

trepid sons, and Jupiter grasped witli mailed hand 
the thunderbolts of heaven. Eome fell, and 
Christians from her territory, with the red sword 
of war carved out the ruling nations of the world, 
and now, Christ sits upon the old throne. Who 
will be his successor ? 

Day by day, religious conceptions grow less and 
less intense. Day by day, the old spirit dies out 
of book and creed. The burning enthusiasm, the 
quenchless zeal of the early church have gone, 
never, never to return. The ceremonies remain, 
but the ancient faith is fading out of the human 
heart. The worn-out arguments fail to convince, 
and denunciations that once blanched the faces of 
a race, excite in us only derision and disgust. As 
time rolls on the miracles grow mean and small, 
and the evidences our fathers thought conclusive 
utterly fail to satisfy us. There is an " irrepressi- 
ble conflict" between religion and science, and 
they cannot peaceably occupy the same brain nor 
the same world. 

While utterly discarding all creeds, and denying 
the truth of all religions, there is neither in my 
heart nor upon my lips a sneer for the hopeful, 
loving and tender souls who believe that from all 
this discord will result a perfect harmony ; that 
every evil will in some mysterious way become a 
good, and that above and over all there is a being 
who, in some way, will reclaim and glorify every 



70 

one of the children of men ; but for the creeds of 
those who glibly prove that salvation is almost 
impossible ; that damnation is almost certain ; that 
the highway of the universe leads to hell ; who fill 
life with fear and death with horror ; who curse 
the cradle and mock the tomb, it is impossible to 
entertain other than feelings of pity, contempt and 
scorn. 

Reason, Observation and Experience — the Holy 
Trinity of Science — have taught us that happiness 
is the only good ; that the time to be happy is 
now, and the way to be happy is to make 
others so. This is enough for us. In this belief 
we are content to live and die. If by any possi- 
bility, the existence of a power superior to, and in- 
dependent of nature shall be demonstrated, there 
will then be time enough to kneel. Until then, 
let us stand erect. 

Notwithstanding the fact that infidels in all ages 
have battled for the rights of man, and have at all 
times been the fearless advocates of liberty and 
justice, we are constantly charged by the church 
with tearing down without building again. The 
church should by this time know that it is utterly 
impossible to rob men of their opinions. The his- 
tory of religious persecution fully establishes the 
fact that the mind necessarily resists and defies 
every attempt to control it by violence. The mind 
necessarily clings to old ideas until prepared for 



n 

the new. The moment we comprehend the truth, 
all erroneous ideas are of necessity cast aside. 

A surgeon once called upon a poor cripple and 
kindly offered to render him any assistance in his 
power. The surgeon began to discourse very 
learnedly upon the nature and origin of disease ; of 
the curative properties of certain medicines ; of the 
advantages of exercise, air and light, and of the 
various ways in which health and strength could 
be restored. These remarks were so full of good 
sense, and discovered so much profound thought 
and accurate knowledge, that the cripple, becoming 
thoroughly alarmed, cried out, "Do not, I pray 
you, take away my crutches. They are my only 
support, and without them I should be miserable 
indeed!" "lam not going," said the surgeon, 
" to take away your crutches. I am going to cure 
you, and then, you will throw the crutches away 
yourself." 

For the vagaries of the clouds the infidels pro- 
pose to substitute the realities of earth ; for super- 
stition, the splendid demonstrations and achieve- 
ments of science ; and for theological tyranny, the 
chainless liberty of thought. 

We do not say that we have discovered all ; 
that our doctrines are the all in all of truth. We 
know of no end to the development of man. We 
cannot unravel the infinite complications of matter 
and force. The history of one monad is as un- 



12 

known as that of tlie universe ; one drop of water 
is as wonderful as all the seas ; one leaf as all the 
forests ; and one grain of sand as all the stars. 

"We are not endeavoring to chain the future, but 
to free the present. We are not forging fetters 
for our children, but we are breaking those our 
fathers made for us. We are the advocates of 
inquiry, of investigation and thought. This of 
itself, is an admission that we are not perfectly- 
satisfied with all our conclusions. Philosophy has 
not the egotism of faith. While superstition 
builds walls and creates obstructions, science opens 
all the highways of thought. We do not pretend 
to have circumnavigated everything, and to have 
solved all difficulties, but we do believe that it is 
better to love men than to fear gods ; that it is 
grander and nobler to think and investigate for 
yourself than to repeat a creed, or quote scripture 
like a religious parrot, with the countenance of a 
dyspeptic owl. We are satisfied that there can be 
but little liberty on earth while men worship a 
tyrant in heaven. We do not expect to accomplish 
everything in our day ; but we want to do what 
good we can, and to render all the service possible 
in the holy cause of human progress. We know 
that doing away with gods and supernatural per- 
sons and powers is not an end. It is a means to an 
end : The real end being the happiness of man. 

Felling forests is not the end of agriculture. 



73 

Driving pirates from the sea is not all there is of 
commerce. 

We are laying the foundations of the grand tem- 
ple of the future — not the temple of all the gods, 
but of all the people — wherein, with appropriate 
rites, will be celebrated the religion of Humanity. 
We are doing what little we can to hasten the 
coming of the day when society shall cease pro- 
ducing millionaires and mendicants — gorged indo- 
lence and famished industry — truth in rags, and 
superstition robed and crowned. We are looking 
for the time when the useful shall be the honor- 
able; when the true shall be the beautiful, and 
when, Keason, throned upon the world's brain, 
shall be the King of Kings and God of Gods. 



i ii c'-} c — 



AN ORATION 



ON 



THIE O-OID^, 



DELIVERED BY 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, 



AT 



FAIRBURY, ILL., 



On the Evening of January 29th, 1872. 



There can be but little Liberty on Earth while men worship a Tyrant in Heaven. 



PEORIA, ILL.: 
TRANSCRIPT BOOK AND JOB PRINT. 

1872. 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1872, by Robert G. Ingersoll, in the 
office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 



^ 



C ^E^C 



^LS^^ V4.; ^^- i^:<r'«^C 






^ 








'"^^ 


-5" 




< 



ccc^r 






t <.- < <5£ 












:<jxcc c 

















^¥ 




^h 












%^ 




'c,^^'^ 

-^l 











Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Jan. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



<,C<S£ -C^ 



<:j^ 


<J<- (T 


( ^. <^^v* 








z' <■- 
: c 

:: <L 








4K1 ■ ^^ *^ 





^dCTM^^ 



<sc:x< 



< c < c 






Ci <4C CCC CCqC£ ct^c 

«<rc << 









<CK.}<C"^(j^ cCc( OC^ c CC;V<3«/" Cc^<>^ C 






^<^ ^PCcC^f <: c^< < c-r cc'( c-..'c 

-Is-c_^' sec cr c<^ r ^v c < c,cr^: CC> CC •■ 
L ' <r c<T ^ «r«^ -c<scc ■ 

:• ' cc 0C7 <: c^^c^- c 



'Ccv c C 



(C C'c^ c C << cc ^ILC 



